The Dr. and Dad Healthcast

We know that aerobic exercise is an important component of a healthy, active lifestyle.  But, what type of aerobic exercise should we be focusing our time and energy on – Relatively low intensity workouts (so called “ Zone 2”), or high intensity interval training (HIIT)?  Some recent studies may be helpful in answering this question.

What is “metabolic health and why is it important?  As its name implies, metabolic health is related to our metabolism which is the set of chemical reactions that support life. Metabolic dysfunction, including obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and other problems is rampant within industrialized countries and the Dr’s primary patient challenge. 

Ophthalmologist Dr. Brandon Baartman, aka the Dr's husband, makes a guest appearance to tell us (almost) everything he know's about the amazing eye and how we can best protect our vision.  We discuss how Brandon became interested in this specialty and his experiences in medical school, residency and during a fellowship. He explains the amazing physiology of our eyes and how we see, as well as...

It seems as if Allulose has gone from a relatively unknown sweetener to our preferred type in about 3 months. (Except spellcheck on Word still doesn’t recognize it and marks Allulose as a misspelling)  The average American consumes about 53 lbs. of sugar annually contributing to obesity, diabetes and other metabolic disorders. Could Allulose help solve that problem?  What is it about All...

It should be pretty simple – Begin or increase your exercise routine and weight loss becomes easier.  We know from experience though that isn’t necessarily true.  So why doesn’t the added caloric deficit of exercise translate to success in managing our waistlines?  Is there a some amount of exercise that is likely to deliver weight loss results?

Dr. Ascanio received the initial shot for the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine about 10 days ago.  We discuss her experience as well as the vaccine rollout process and concerns around the possibly more virulent UK strain in our final episode for 2020.

As the so-called “third wave” of the COVID-19 virus rages across the US and the world, encouraging news is coming from projects aimed at creating vaccines to protect us from getting the disease. Of course, the two questions on everyone’s mind are: “When can I get it?“, and “Will it be safe?” We offer our perspective and opinion on these issues and more in this episode.

Humans are opportunistic omnivores.  We eat everything available that doesn’t outright poison us. The omnivore’s dilemma is the question of what should we be eating within such a large and diverse set of options.  A new research paper asserts that a Pesco-Mediteranian diet along with intermittent fasting is best supports a lengthy healthspan.

The Dr. is making the transition from working for a large hospital system to private practice in a fast growing healthcare model.  It’s called ”Direct Primary Care” (DPC) because the relationship between Dr. and patient is exactly that - direct.  There’s no insurance carrier or corporate bureaucracy in the way and that allows for a much better healthcare experience.  Plus, instead o...

There’s a ton of information available on food labels. All of it is mandated by the FDA, but it can be confusing and even somewhat misleading if you don’t know what to look for.

We're beginning to hear that a COVID-19 vaccine is getting close to approval.  Maybe more than one.  But, given the shortcuts in the process (compared to the usual vaccine development timeline), can we be sure it will be safe to take?  In this election year, of course this issue has become highly politicized and particularly confusing.  Listen in to sort some of it out and unde...

We all have a weak link - no matter how healthy we are.  This reality recently slapped me (The Dad) in the face.  Like many people, I ignored my weak link and assumed, since I was in generally excellent health, I had nothing to worry about.  Well, I learned my lesson and you can too by listening to this episode.

Back in Episode 20 (August 2019) we talked about Lou's participation in a study called Predict 2. A home-based study that opened in June 2019 that eventually involved about 1,000 volunteers across the US, measuring nutritional responses to food over a period of 11 days.  After almost a year of waiting we have the results and they offer interesting insights on how we respond to the foods we ea...

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit” Aristotle It seems like “bad” habits, particularly ones related to our health, are much easier to develop than “good” ones. Why is that the case? Particularly considering all the information we have on what we should do to maintain our health. Clearly, there’s more than reason and logic at work here. Just as health science...

It’s no secret many of us struggle to maintain a proper weight. As we’ve discussed in past episodes, the ready availability of calorie dense food and modern mass marketing in combination with our evolutionary proclivity to store energy in times of plenty conspire to cause rampant obesity in developed countries today. There's also no arguing that being overweight increases the risk of metabolic dis...

Of all the miraculous processes that work to sustain our lives, our immune system may be the most amazing. Multiple organs, cells and proteins interact to protect us from a constant onslaught of threats - including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.  What is our immune system, how does it work and can we bolster it's effectiveness? 

Q&A on opening up businesses and getting back to normal, the state of testing, treatments and much more.

After about a month of enduring the varying degrees of social isolation and resultant economic crisis, the question on most of our minds is – When can we return to normal? This is taking on somewhat greater urgency as the economic impacts continue to pile up. Most notably, over 16 million Americans have applied for unemployment in the past 3 weeks. And despite over $2 Trillion in economic stimulus...

It's a gross understatement to say there's a lot of information out there on COVID-19 and how we're responding to this crisis. Unfortunately, much of that fails to address the reality of our front-line health professionals.  In this broadcast we discuss the reality of Nicole's day to day experience in the clinic treating patients.  It's not great...

A French medical researcher Didier Raoult recently published  results of a small/short clinical trial involving the use of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin in the treatment of COVID-19. When Fox News and then President Trump publicized the apparently effective cocktail, people around the world responded: People stormed pharmacies and pet shops for chloroquine, some killed themselves with a...

Dr. Nicole Ascanio discusses her experiences fighting the COVID-19 pandemic as a Family Medicine doctor in Omaha, NE.  We talk about she's dealing with people who may be infected, protective equipment supplies, testing and much more.

It’s been a little over a week since our last podcast which focused on COVID-19, the so-called coronavirus, and much has changed so we thought it made sense to provide an update.

As of February 20, 2020, over 75,000 cases of COVID-2019 have been reported, > 95% of them in China, and the outbreak is linked to more than more than 2,200 deaths. As the epidemic is evolving and the situation is rapidly changing, up-to-date reliable information on the number of cases and recommendations on management of cases and preventive interventions varies.  So, how concerned should...

David Sinclair, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Genetics and co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School and is best known for his work on understanding why we age and how to slow (and possibly reverse) its effects. He’s originally from Australia and his Audible narration of the book is particularly enjoyable. TIME magazine has recognized him...

Sadly, for wine lovers like me, the answer is – Yes. It’s estimated that 5.6% of incident cancer cases (approximately 87,000 each year) are associated with alcohol.  We discuss why alcohol is linked to higher risk of developing cancer and why all the previous hype about moderate consumption has proven to be wrong.